Kentridge artwork sales throw lifeline to artists

“The situation we are in cannot be the end state of the world; there has to be a better condition for everyone, including artists.”

So said world-famous South African artist William Kentridge, whose donation of an artwork titled Oh to Believe in Another World to The Lockdown Collection (TLC) has contributed to the awarding of 60 bursaries this year.

Almost R720 000 was raised through the sale of this blue rebus-text artwork as well as a previous Kentridge poster sold over lockdown called Weigh All Tears. As a result, the TLC exceeded its goals, and enabled 60 students to be awarded a bursary of R12 000 each.

A charitable and art-inspired initiative, the TLC was conceived and developed by Lauren Woolf, the founder of consultancy Mrs Woolf; Kim Berman, the founding director of Artist Proof Studio (APS); and Carl Bates, the founding partner of business leadership initiative Sirdar in 2020 in order to capture South Africa’s historic COVID-19 lockdown and support vulnerable artists. The organisation recently won two accolades at the 2020/2021 BASA (Business and Arts South Africa) Awards.

Mrs Woolf, with arts partner APS, won the SMME (Small, Micro or Medium-sized Enterprise) Award, and Sirdar, with arts partner APS, won the First Time Sponsor Award.

“It was awesome recognition to receive the two BASA awards on behalf of Artist Proof Studio with the TLC partners,” said Berman, a professor in visual art at the University of Johannesburg.

The TLC was launched within 48 hours on the eve of South Africa’s historic first COVID-19 lockdown. Due to the instant fallout of the pandemic, it aimed to raise desperately needed funds for artists and the broader community.

Ahead of TLC’s auction the following month, Mark Auslander, a professor from Central Washington University in the United States, said, “This is the most significant initiative in the art world on planet earth right now.”

The auction raised more than R2 million in just a few hours. It was a “white glove sale”, which means every artwork in the auction sold, including additional artworks by Kentridge sold in an innovative Zoom live bidding format.

Since then, the TLC has raised more than R3.5 million in total, allocated more than 500 grants to vulnerable artists, and just recently awarded 50 bursaries for art students.

Said a beneficiary, “The funding allowed me to buy food and pay for electricity and data. This, in turn, allowed me to continue marketing my work online for possible sales. This wouldn’t have been possible [had] I not had the support from TLC and the fund.”

Speaking about what she will take out of TLC, Woolf said, “That energy that comes with the urgency. The creative energy, the physical and spiritual energy that comes when a lot of people come together for a cause and initiative that they believe in.”

Berman described working with Woolf and Bates as “a dynamite combination of skills and collaboration. The synergy was electric and catalysed hundreds of people all over the world who bought into and invested in the concept.

“We raised R2 million from one auction with the sale of 21 artworks, which was remarkable. The business and marketing networks of the co-founders were quite awesome to witness. They could mobilise the business community to get involved and invest in this visionary idea. My role was to invite the artists to participate, and use the Artist Proof Studio network, an organisation I co-founded 30 years ago, to reach out to the art community. It offered an amazing opportunity to organise a campaign that supported hundreds of vulnerable artists across the country, and many of them are students or alumni of APS. The impact this has had on so many artists during a very hard time was moving.”

The initiative “motivated the artists to carry on working and at the same time gave them a platform to show how the pandemic had affected them and their families”, said Cinthia Sifa Mulanga, an artist who contributed to the collection.

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on vulnerable artists, said Berman. “APS has taken a leading role in ensuring that artists are supported over this time. At APS, our key interest is to keep artists making art and remain self-sustaining by keeping them healthy, connected, and having the materials to create. Many of the APS artists received grants and bursaries to sustain their practices and livelihoods. At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge that it’s the artists in all disciplines who have kept the world hopeful, entertained, and inspired during this global trauma.”

Asked for her advice for aspiring artists, Berman said, “In my book called Finding Voice: A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change, I write about the use of art as a vehicle for solidarity and collective action that leads to empowerment and agency in addressing the challenges faced in times of trauma. I see the TLC art campaign and the voices of students as a hopeful vision for engaging greater social justice in our institutions and communities.”